Council candidates clash during Long Beach Fourth District forum

LONG BEACH - Fourth District City Council contenders fielded questions on the budget, business growth and other issues during an occasionally testy candidate forum Thursday night.

Incumbent Patrick O'Donnell, running for a third term as a write-in, and challengers Daryl Supernaw and John Watkins participated in the event hosted by the Stearns Park Neighborhood Association.

About 75 residents attended the forum, held at Tucker Elementary School.

The biggest issue facing the city, candidates generally agreed, is the budget.

A $16.4 million deficit is expected next year. Since 2004, the city has cut $209 million and 811 jobs.

Watkins and O'Donnell pushed policies of combining jobs and cutting costs while balking at an audience suggestion that the time has come to consider raising taxes to supplement cuts, with Watkins calling such a move a "last resort."

Supernaw argued that the city needs to tap into corporate partnerships and naming rights to boost its coffers, saying he has pushed city officials for years to seek such revenue streams.

"I can't get a lot of traction out of it," said Supernaw, a business consultant and community activist.

The candidates were in accord with a desire to alter Long Beach's breakwater.

The 2.5-mile seawall was built during World War II to protect Navy ships from attack and today is blamed for trapping polluted water and hurting tourism by limiting natural wave action.

O'Donnell called himself the "strongest advocate" on the council for changing the breakwater.

"I will continue to push this issue," he said.

Supernaw, while agreeing there is a need to bring down at least part of the wall, saw it as unlikely considering that a needed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study has been delayed for years due to lack of funding.

"I am a realist," said Supernaw.

All three candidates, while applauding a recent modernization of the Long Beach Airport, sought to limit expansion at the facility.

"We need to talk about quality, not quantity," said Supernaw.

The airport noise ordinance should remain static, said Watkins.

"I want to see commercial flights capped, not grow," he said.

The question-and-answer style forum was notable for its clashes between Supernaw and O'Donnell.

Several times, O'Donnell interrupted Supernaw, who frequently criticized the councilman and his decisions, saying he hasn't done enough to help businesses and inform the public.

"It's easy to say no when you're running for office," O'Donnell said at one point.

In fact, topics discussed at the gathering frequently veered off the meat-and-potatoes issues of fixing the budget and improving public safety, with residents challenging O'Donnell on a possible run for Assembly in two years - he said he won't but refused to sign a pledge stating so - and grilling Watkins, a retired Long Beach police officer, on being a plaintiff in a police "donning and doffing" lawsuit in 2010.

The suit was brought by about 900 police officers against the city seeking payment for allegedly unpaid time putting on their uniforms and other routine tasks.

Watkins said his participation was to get compensation for unpaid time spent on call at home for his job as a supervising sergeant at the Long Beach Airport.

He also addressed the state revoking his contractor's license in 1995, explaining that he did not have funds to fight charges that he did deficient work.

"I had a stamped set of plans from the county," Watkins said. "I did not know county law superceded state law."

Near the end of the night, the candidates were asked to weigh-in on the city's two-term limit passed by voters.

O'Donnell, who is a high school teacher, said he doesn't look at the requirement as a limit since the charter allows termed-out officials to run a write-in campaign.

"They created a higher bar," O'Donnell said.

Supernaw claimed the intent of voters in Long Beach is that elected officials serve only two terms; Watkins was content to accept the law.